


Taking the Bait

by thegirlwiththeprettybrowneyes



Series: AFTG Bingo 2018 [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Banter, Existential Angst, M/M, Smut, planes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-14 12:52:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16492970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirlwiththeprettybrowneyes/pseuds/thegirlwiththeprettybrowneyes
Summary: “Can I ask you something?” Andrew asked, stripping his own shirt off.“Go for it babe.”“Why are you doing this?”Neil’s smile rose up, and Andrew found himself regretting the question. “Well, what can I say? I’m a big fan of your work.”----------------AFTG Bingo - AndreilOne Of Them Is A Celebrity





	Taking the Bait

“You're Andrew Minyard”

Andrew was standing on a balcony at the airport, watching the planes load up. He would be flying back home soon. To his small, empty apartment for one with a view made for two. He was about to have a cigarette to warm up when the boy had spoken.

Andrew cursed himself for not hearing anyone come out onto the balcony and cursed the boy for being a fan. The boy had soft-looking, curly red hair and blue eyes. His freckled nose and cheeks were red from the cold. He was painfully familiar, somehow, and Andrew tried to place where he had seen him before.

Andrew decided to address his idiotic comment “Am I? I hadn't noticed.”

The boy shook his head like he was remembering himself and the gesture was endearing in a way that made Andrew want to get him some hot chocolate. “No, I mean, it's just… we've met.”

“Oh?” Andrew pretended he hadn't been thinking the same thing. He searched through his memory for this lost-looking boy and found him, sprawled on the floor after Andrew had hit him with an exy racquet. “Oh. Kevin's lucky striker. Yes I remember you. How's your stomach?”

“Well, fine, judging by the fact that you hit me with my own racquet eight years ago.” The boy was different now. Red hair, blue eyes, but also the way he stood and talked. He was stronger now, more colorful.

Andrew had given Neil Josten some thought over the years. He was the one unsolvable mystery of Andrew's life. Why had he run? Why had he said no? What has become of the running boy?

“You never know. I could have given you lasting damage.” Andrew fished around in his pocket for a cigarette and a lighter.

“You flatter yourself.” Neil teased.

Was he flirting?

Andrew raised an eyebrow. “Maybe I do.”

“Maybe you should.”

He was flirting.

Andrew wasn’t sure whether or not he was happy that he was being flirted with.

“Neil Josten, was it?” Andrew remembered his name, he just didn't want Josten to get too cozy.

The flirtation flew from Josten's face.

“Max O'Connor, now.” he was lying.

A new name. A new face. An old mystery.

“And you've dyed your hair and changed your eyes. Are you running from something, Josten?”

“O'Connor.” Josten corrected.

“No it’s not.”

Neil sighed. “No, it’s not”

Andrew gestured for him to continue. Neil sighed and gave a bitter laugh. “And no. Everything I was running from before has long since stopped chasing me.”

“Well.” Andrew looked him up and down and decided he didn't want to pry any further. “Good for you.” He found his lighter and slowly lit a cigarette. He was slow about it, he like the way Neil's eyes lingered on his hands and lips.

Josten's eyes followed the cigarette as it moved from Andrew's lips and swallowed slowly. He opened his mouth and Andrew waited for what he would say. “You're a pro athlete, should you really be smoking those?”

The spell was broken.

Andrew scoffed.“What are you, my mother?” he looked back over the balcony and finally asked. “Why'd you say no, all those years ago?”

“Hmm?” Andrew pretended not to know that Josten was pretending not to hear him.

“Why didn't you come to Palmetto?” Andrew repeated.

Neil’s face cycled through a complicated series of emotions. He settled on sincerity. “Too busy running, I guess.”

Andrew nodded. He didn’t know what he had expected. Neil eyed Andrew’s cigarette box.

He offered Neil the pack of Marlboros “Want one?”

Neil gazed longingly at the pack and Andrew wondered if Neil wasn’t watching his lips at all, but chasing the tobacco instead. Still, Neil shook his head “I'm trying to kick the habit.”

Andrew took a drag and the thin stream of smoke stretched up on and on forever.

“Where are you headed?”

Neil told him.

Andrew scoffed and he was about to laugh,but Neil looked dead serious. “No kidding? Me too.” Andrew watched Neil’s eyes widen in fear-tinged shock before he shook his head. Andrew answered Neil’s question “Season's over. Time for me to hibernate.”

“What will you do?” Neil asked, the chilly air was taking its toll on him,Andrew could see

“Eat. Sleep. Wait till next season.” Andrew shrugged. He would return to his apartment and build up a routine, and then he would return to exy.

Neil’s face held an expression that, had Andrew not known any better, he would have described as dreamy. Andrew did know better, so he described it as longing.

“Sounds perfect.” Neil’s voice had an odd, familiar quality to it, not like Andrew had heard it before, but like Andrew had felt it before.

“To you I'm sure it does.”

“But not to you?” Neil didn’t sound incredulous. He just sounded sad.

Andrew answered honestly. “No, not to me.”

“Well, Andrew Minyard. What do you want?” Some of the levity was back in Josten’s voice, but it was less flippant and more fascinated.

Andrew took a long drag and thought that maybe Josten was looking at his lips “That's the big question isn't it?”

The planes moved across the tarmac and Andrew watched the cursed things weave around each other. He could go anywhere. He could go to Seattle and see Aaron. He could go to Germany and see Nicky. If he really wanted to, he could track Kevin or Renee down. But he wouldn't.

“What will you do?”

“Eat. Sleep. Live.”

“Sounds perfect.” And it did.

“To you, I'm sure it does.” There was a sardonic edge to Josten’s words that made Andrew smile.

“Are you sure you don't want a cigarette?”

“I'm sure. But don't ask me again.” Neil smiled in a way that made Andrew very much want to kiss it off him. “I'd better go, they'll be boarding soon.”

“I’m not stopping you,”

* * *

The great thing about an Exy salary was that Andrew could afford to buy two tickets in first class so no one would bother him while he coped with riding a death trap.

That was, until a flight attendant remorselessly begged him to let her use this seat to move up a passenger who's seat had been booked.

Andrew sighed and gave in. He'd just have to panic quietly.

“I'm so sorry, sir” the flight attendant was saying, as the new bane of Andrew's existence walked up to his new seat.

Neil Josten flashed him a smile and a roguish wink “Long time no see.”

“Sit down and shut up,” Andrew said through gritted teeth.

The nervous stewardess chittered along to worry over some other passenger.

“Don't like flying?” Neil asked, and his voice lilted mockingly. Andrew sent him a glare. He was surprised to find that Neil was looking at him through lidded eyes. And oh. _Oh_. Andrew saw his game.  “You ought to let off some steam.”

Andrew took in Josten's liquid, languid posture, like he hadn't sat down in the chair so much as stretched out into it. He was smiling that stupid smile and Andrew was having a hard time tamping down the part of him that wanted to run his fingers through Josten's hair.

Andrew decided that maybe taking the bait wasn’t a bad thing.

“And how do you suppose I do that?”

Neil didn’t say anything, but smiled. After they had taken off and it was okay to roam about the cabin, Neil stood up and sauntered slowly down the aisle. Andrew watched him go, and waited a minute or two before following.

When he found Neil in the bathroom stall, Neil was shirtless, he was in the middle of placing his folded shirt on the shelf next to the sink. “Oh,good, I thought you didn’t get the hint.”

Andrew couldn’t let this happen without setting a few ground rules“Look, I-”

“Oh god, are you straight? I didn’t mean to assume-”

“No! No. I’m..” Andrew looked at Neil’s torso,it was riddled with scars and sculpted in a way that reminded Andrew of old, classic marble statue. “Decidedly not straight. But I have some rules, you can’t touch me unless I tell you to, and even then, only where I tell you to.”

Neil nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

Andrew nodded and locked the door.

“Can I ask you something?” Andrew asked, stripping his own shirt off.

“Go for it babe.”

“Why are you doing this?”

Neil’s smile rose up, and Andrew found himself regretting the question. “Well, what can I say? I’m a big fan of your work.”

“Shut up.” and Andrew set to work.

Neil kissed like he had something to prove. Andrew let Neil prove it all over his lips and hands.

It wasn’t rushed, but there was something urgent about this. They had all the time in the world, but neither of them wanted to wait that long.

“Kiss my neck,” Andrew said, as he let Neil pick him up and place him on the sink counter.

“Pull my hair,” Neil moaned as Andrew mouthed along his collar bone.

“Put your arms around my neck,” Andrew breathed, as Neil’s chest pressed against his own.

“Bite me” Neil groaned.

Soon, Neil was up against the door of the stall and Andrew was unbuckling Neil’s belt.

“Is this okay?” Andrew asked.

“Fuck-” Neil’s back arched against the door. “Yes, Andrew, just keep going.”

Neil came, flushed, moaning Andrew’s name.

Andrew unbuckled his own belt, and jerked himself off quickly before Neil came back to himself.

He came quickly, moan stifled into Neil’s shoulder.

The stood there, breathing for a moment, before they took in the mess around them.

“Well.” Josten said. “What are we going to do about this?”

Andrew looked around till he found what he was looking for.

He grabbed and held up a moist towelette. “God bless this airline.”

Neil laughed, giddy, and grabbed one as well.

* * *

 

When they had returned to their seats, Neil had very politely bought them both coffee.

“You could have let me buy it for you. Now I’ll owe you a coffee.”

Neil smiled “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was you asking me on a coffee date.”

“Good thing you know better, then.”

Neil sipped his coffee, pulled a marker from his bag and wrote something on a napkin. A phone number.

“For when you want to repay your coffee debt.”

Andrew didn’t smile at that, but it was a very near thing.

* * *

 

Andrew saw the headline a few days later.

Love In The Clouds: Star Goalie Andrew Minyard Caught With Surprising Companion!

Andrew rolled his eyes and dialed the number he had since memorized.

“Andrew?” said a soft, sleepy voice from the other end.

“We have to talk.”

“Oh?”

“We’re in the news.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“What better time for that not-coffee-date, right?”

This time, Andrew did smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this was my first time writing smut, so please go easy on me.
> 
> Kudos and Comments help me go on writing, so please do so if you liked it!


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